In good times and bad times, in tight labor markets or soft ones, businesses need highly skilled talent. And, in order to grow, they need to find and deploy that talent in focused ways. The old bottom-up, reactionary, "fast-fill-best-candidate" approach does not contribute to long-term business success. The far better method is to align workforce planning initiatives to corporate objectives- in a word, to strategize. This highly practical book offers a blueprint for linking business strategies to talent strategies. It starts with the premise that for staffing strategies to be effective, they must be responsive to changes both within and outside the organization. Successful Talent Strategies then buts through the clutter of often-contradictory talent management practices by offering two new concepts: Talent Flow: employing people at the right time, in the right numbers, with the right mix of skills and capabilities, under the right terms of employment; and Talent Engagement: aligning individual competencies with strategic objectives, maximizing the mutual value of the exchange between employer and employee. Author David Sears shows you how to design talent strategies with the same forethought, care and commitment that go into all business strategies. You'll learn to: Analyze the elements of a workable business strategy Conceive you talent strategies using value propositions, objectives, and strategy mapping Source, recruit, hire, and retain talent strategically, in part through crucial pre- and post-employment relationship activities Move from administrative "silos" (i.e., separate focuses on rewards, performance, and training) toward broader and more transformational strategies Measure and improve your talent strategy results with an eye toward cost savings and customer-perceived value Successful Talent Strategies also gives you practical, real-world examples of how successful companies such as The Container Store, General Electric, Lands' End, and Prudential Financial are putting these strategies into action. Not least, Successful Talent Strategies can help make a forceful difference in your organization's future by providing a common framework for business executives and human resources professionals, who often work at cross-purposes on staffing issues.